Seven Dragons Detective Agency
by Mashara125
Summary: A Fairy Tail AU fic that takes place in the "real world" city of Fiore where the residents of Fairy Street have all grown up and gone their separate ways but find that their lives are still interconnected. Levy McGarden is a witness to a mysterious murder and her only hope of survival might be the Seven Dragons Detective Agency. GaLe centered, but will feature all FT characters.
1. Closing Time

**Hello everyone! I realize that I should not be starting a new project before finishing an old one, but I was having some trouble trying to find the motivation to pick up where I left off with my other fic (Asuka's Fairy Tail Adventure) and so I just started getting my writing gremlins out. I have gotten into a really good series of books lately, the Stephanie Plum Novels by Janet Evanowich, and that is were the inspiration came for this. Please enjoy!**

**As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for the use of the characters for my own creative expressions *bows***

* * *

The room was dark and deathly silent except for the ticking of an old fashioned coo-coo clock on the wall and the shadows dancing through a grungy window from the light of a lone streetlamp outside. A small woman was literally sitting in a pile of books on the floor, some of them stacked neatly in rows and others in disorganized piles, she was leaning against a packed bookcase with a half open book in her lap and her head rolled on her shoulder in silent sleep. The clock continued to tick closer to the top of the hour until finally it hit 9pm and the little birdies popped out to sing. "Coo coo, coo coo."

"Arg!" The sleeping girl knocked over some of the books and sent her red-rimmed reading glasses flying across the room in surprise as she looked around the dark book store trying to remember where she was.

"Oh yeah, Little Women…" she looked down at the open book in her lap. Mr. Crux's bookstore mainly carried second hand and antique books, most of which were found at garage sales or junk shops and then repaired and restored by Mr. Crux before being resold. However, every once and awhile someone would think ahead and just donate their old books to Mr. Crux directly and it was while going through one of these boxes that 23 year old Levy McGarden had discovered an old but well treated copy of one of her favorite classics. She had just wanted to read the part where Jo met her Mr. Bhaer, but before she knew it she was reading through the entire thing for about the billionth time. She glanced at the clock and gasped again, quickly getting to her feet and knocking even more books over as she did.

"Dammit, my glasses…" she squinted across the room and spotted them under one of the reading chairs that dotted the cluttered room. She picked her way carefully through the spilled piles and retrieved her reading glasses, cleaning the lenses on her dusty summer dress before replacing them on her nose. She then turned on the small lamp sitting by the antique cash register on the counter by the front door. She frowned in dismay at the train wreck of spilled literature in front of her and the mixed piles that she had spent hours sorting that afternoon. The truth was that there was almost no room left on any of the sale shelves anyway and they had started stacking books wherever there was room. The shop was not very big, 4 bookshelves bursting with hardcover novels and then a few smaller glass cases that held the older and more fragile antique books.

Levy glanced at the clock again, five minutes after nine, technically the book store was closed at 7pm but she must have slept through the last few hourly chimes. Not that Mr. Crux would mind, Mr. Crux was nearly 80 years old, almost deaf and went to bed before the sun went down. Right now he was probably snuggly in his room above the shop, oblivious that his only employee had nearly spent the night passed out in a pile of merchandise on the floor. He wasn't known to be an early riser either, she could have been there all night and he would have never known the smiled to herself, the old man was a pain the butt sometimes, but she loved him dearly like a grandfather, giving up many a Saturday afternoon perusing junk sales with him in search of old books. This job may not pay very much, but she got to read as much as she liked so it was the perfect employment for a shy bookworm.

She looked again at the pile of books on the floor and then the clock on the wall. It was now ten minutes after nine and she was still tired even after her 3 hour nap on the floor, the books could wait until tomorrow to get resorted and tucked away where she found the room. Levy grabbed her satchel from behind the counter and flicked off the light before turning to the door, stopping suddenly when something caught her eye. It was the bag of garbage that she had filled earlier and was going to take out before she left, still leaning against the counter, the light from the window gleaming off the black plastic. She could wait and take it out tomorrow she reasoned with herself, that dumpster was a pain to handle in the daylight, it would be a menace to try and open in the dark. But then she thought about old man Crux coming down early and discovering the bag, books on the floor was one thing but garbage left in the shop was another. She didn't want to be the cause of him losing his fingers on the snappy dumpster lid, or god forbid he fell while trying to heave the bag over the side and broke a hip. With a sigh she snatched up the bag, it even took her two hands to manage to get it out of the front door and then she locked up the bookstore with her key.

She half dragged, half carried the black bag around the building and into the back alley where the dumpster was. She set her satchel down against the dumpster's side and peered at the lid while trying to make a plan of attack. She tried lifting it up with one hand, the door opened a few inches but not wide enough for the bag to slip through. I need to be about one foot taller and three times stronger to deal with this, Levy thought to herself and she struggled to push the lip up further. Finally she gave up and let the lid door slam; she was going to have to resort to the trick she had learned since starting at the bookstore although she had never done it in the dark before.

"Please let me keep all my fingers," Levy prayed as she placed both hands palm up on the outer lip of the trashcan's lid. She gave it a heave with all her might and let go of the door once it was high in the air, quickly grabbing the heavy garbage bags and forcing it over the dumpster wall before the lid came back down with a hellish bang. It had been close, but Levy managed to make it with all her fingertips intact. She smiled at her accomplishment while picking up the strap of her satchel; she had turned to go back down the alley when she was body slammed against the dumpster by someone running full tilt down the narrow road. Her satchel slipped from her hands and lost some of its contents as the unknown runner tripped over Levy and her bag and fell to his knees. The fall didn't seem to slow him down; he scrambled back onto his feet and continued to run at breakneck speed down the alley.

"You could at least apologize!" Levy growled after him as she crawled on her knees scooping up the contents of her bag and pushing them back into the satchel. She blew out an angry breath and watched him run away, "Idiot."

But then suddenly, before she had a chance to get to her feet, the sound of a motorcycle made her jump. It came out of nowhere and just appeared right beside the running man, who was now a fair ways down the alley. The motorcycle stopped in front of the man, blocking him from going any further and he tried to back into the darkness of the buildings that lined the right side of the alley. The running man had his hands up and Levy could vaguely make out that he was talking to the person on the motorcycle but it was too far away for her to hear any of the words. Just then, the motorcycle rider pulled a shining object out of their black leather jacket and pointed it at the man backing away. Levy didn't realize until she heard the crack of gunfire that the rider had shot the runner in the alley and she let out an involuntary yelp of shock. She tried to rise, but her legs had turned to jelly, she was clutching her bag in her left hand and trying to pull herself up against the dumpster with her right. When she was finally upright she looked up to see the figure on the motorcycle was now off their bike and leaning over the shot man. Levy tried to make her legs move, but she stood frozen to the spot, leaning against the dumpster in terror as the rider finished their search and turned their helmeted head in her direction.

"No, no-no-no-no no," Levy squeaked, she willed her legs to move but was only able to get about two steps away from the dumpster when the rider raised their gun in her direction.

"GET DOWN!" She heard the call just as something hit her in a flying tackle that knocked the air out of her and sent her sprawling for the second time in under five minutes. She heard the bark of the gun again and curled up behind the dumpster, aware that someone much larger and much stronger was holding her down on the ground. The zipping sound of the motorcycle was getting closer and she realized in horror that they were coming around to that side of the dumpster for a clearer shot.

"Not today asshole," She heard a voice above her growl, it was the same one that had yelled at her just a second ago. She saw another flash of light and recognized the gleam of a gun. Not another gun, her inner-voice was screaming at her, why is there another gun? This time though, she was on the right side of the shootout as she heard two shots being fired the motorcycle screeched to a halt before reaching the dumpster and retreated back in the direction it had come from, the thrumming of the engine quickly getting quieter until there was just the silent again except for the beating of her heart in her ears and her ragged breathing.

She looked up from the ground, her arms still covering her head in a feeble attempt at protection against a rogue bullet. There was a large figure crouching in front of her, covered in darkness except for the silver gun he held in his left hand and she watched as he placed it back into a gun belt at his waist. "Must not have brought an extra clip," she heard him murmur to himself. "Otherwise we would have been sitting ducks, the winner of a gunfight is the one with the most bullets and the best luck." He started to turn towards her. "How ar-" There was a large thud as Levy's satchel hit him square in the face.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Levy screamed, the adrenaline had finally kicked in and she was ready to get away from all of this craziness. She swung the satchel again and caught him under the chin while he was still partially stunned from the first hit. "LEAVE ME ALONE, ALL OF YOU!" Then she took off running, not down the alley but in between the buildings towards the residential streets in the next block. Her apartment was only three blocks away and with any luck she would get there without being shot at anymore.

"Wait!" She heard the man with the gun call behind her but she didn't turn around or slow down, instead she weaved between two buildings and slid through a small space she was sure someone that big couldn't get through to follow her. She stayed in the shadows and listened for any sounds of being followed or for that stupid motorcycle but she could barely hear anything over the thudding of her heart. Finally she made it to her building, with a shaking hand it took her 4 tries to get the key into the outer building's lock and then she ran up the two flights of stairs to apartment 302, shoved the key in the lock and wrenched open the door. Once inside she dropped her satchel on the floor, slammed the door and locked the deadbolt with a snap, her legs gave away again and she fell to the floor in an exhausted heap.

* * *

"At least it isn't fucking raining," Gajeel Redfox murmured under his breath. He was standing between two large bushes in the darkness of the street while watching a lone figure lurk in the shadows of the building in front of him. He was starting to think that the lucky break he had caught with a tip off this afternoon that some kind of deal would be going down tonight would be a bust. So far, all he had learned was that shady characters were even worse at punctuality than their crime fighting man he was tailing, a low level gopher for the Grimoire Heart, had been waiting around for the better part of an hour and seemed to be taking the delay in an even worse attitude than Gajeel was. Zoldeo kicked at the stones on the street, stuck his hands in his pockets, pulled out his cell phone every thirty seconds to check the time; someone is antsy, Gajeel noted. He couldn't blame the guy, this was a pretty open area in a decent part of town, not the best place for criminal enterprising. That was part of the reason why Gajeel didn't believe that anything was going to go down, Grimoire Heart were smarter than this, Hades was smarter than this. But what if Hades has nothing to do with this? Gajeel's subconscious mused to him while they waited. This might just be some chump deal between two low-level knuckleheads, barely worth your time. Well, Laxus had sent him here, so here he was, not that Laxus was his boss or anything or told him what to do all the time. The truth was that they desperately needed a break in a case they were working on, any crumbs or tidbits of information that were new might just be what was needed to jumpstart the investigation again. Leave no stone unturned, wasn't that the point in all this private detective crap anyway?

"I think we've both been duped," Gajeel mumbled to the figure bitterly. He was just about to give up and crawl back through the bushes from where he came when he heard the humming from a motorcycle in the distance. He crouched down lower in the greenery, internal fingers crossed for something to happen. A motorcycle came into view, it slowed up in front of the building until pulling up onto the sidewalk and coming to a rolling stop. Gajeel noted the insignia on the bike and on the rider's jacket; it was someone from Quarto Cerberus and his eyebrows rose in surprise. This was getting nuttier and nuttier, something wasn't right; these two groups didn't run in any of the same circles.

Zoldeo and the mystery rider were speaking to each other, the mystery rider not taking off his helmet or even removing the visor, therefore Gajeel couldn't make anything out that he was saying. Zoldeo reached into the inside of his jacket and pulled out a plain white envelope, too thin to be any kind of a money payoff, which meant it had to be information. Just as Zoldeo started moving forward to presumably give up the envelope, the mystery rider pulled a gun from somewhere in his jacket and pointed it right at the poor bugger. Shit! It's a hit, Gajeel's mind was racing with what he should do, call the cops or let it ride out. Before he had a chance to choose the mystery rider squeezed off a shot in Zoldeo's direction, unfortunately the little weasel had chosen to throw his cell phone at the rider's helmet. It would be hard enough to see in that thing here in the dark to get off a clear shot, but even harder if you had to dodge something coming at your face. The shot went wide and Zoldeo had squeezed into the spot between the two buildings before anyone else had a chance to blink. The rider could try and squish his way through there, or stick his gun in there and open fire but Zoldeo was quick and was probably halfway down the back alley by now. The rider seemed to have come up with the same conclusions since instead of following him they backed up and searched for a spot big enough for the bike to fit through.

"Shit!" Gajeel fumbled in his pocket for his phone and ran to the opening that Zoldeo had crawled through. It was going to be a tight squeeze; he was quite a bit bigger than that skinny rat. "You have a situation in the back alley between 13th and 14th, close to Stone Ave," he yelled into the phone at the police dispatch. There was some fuzzy answer on the other side of the line; the service between buildings was less than perfect."Just send someone down here, now!"

He ended the call and stuffed the phone back in his pants just as he came out into the alley, he turned to his left and saw Zoldeo running like his ass was on fire down the narrow road. He took off after him, trying to listen for the motorcycle that was sure to be nearby. Just then Zoldeo collided with some poor sucker throwing their garbage into a dumpster and he watched as they bounced off the side and biffed it into the dirt. At first he thought it was a large child with bright blue hair, but he got closer and realized it was a small woman crawling around trying to pick up her things. Then the motorcycle reappeared and Gajeel's stomach went cold and he pumped his legs harder as he watched the rider gun down Zoldeo in the alley. The stupid girl was still searching on the ground, probably unaware of what was going on, he watched as she finally got to her feet at the same time as the rider turned and raised their gun towards them both.

"GET DOWN!" The words were out of his mouth before he even realized he had yelled, he closed the last bit of difference between himself and the girl with a leap and pulled her down under him. Thankfully she was light, small and too stunned to realize what was going on and did what anyone would do in that situation and curled into a protective ball. Gajeel heard the motorcycle rev and come closer; he sat up beside the dumpster and pulled his own gun out of his belt and held it to his side.

"Not today asshole," he growled and peered around the metal corner, aiming the gun low at the bike. He fired off two shots, he couldn't afford the waste any bullets and he wasn't in the best place to get perfect aim. The motorcycle stopped suddenly and turned around; the rider probably hadn't expected them to have any weapons and realized that escape was safer than the unknown. When the sound of the motorcycle faded away Gajeel holstered his gun. "Must not have brought an extra clip," he muttered to no one in particular. "Otherwise we would have been sitting ducks, the winner of a gunfight is the one with the most bullets and the best luck." He remembered the girl, who was silent and probably scared shitless behind him. "How ar-" He wasn't expecting something heavy to hit him right in the face.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He heard a shrill voice scream, he was still reeling from the first unexpected shot when the second took him in the chin. "LEAVE ME ALONE, ALL OF YOU!" When his eyes started to refocus he realized that she was gone, running off between the buildings. "Wait!" He called out but he knew it was too late, she was lost in the darkness. She shook his head to try and clear it out and process what had just happened. It had been a hit, that part was absolutely fucking certain with Zoldeo's corpse laying not even 20 feet away. The rider had also taken something from the body, the envelope that was the original purpose of the meeting? Gajeel wouldn't know for sure unless he searched the body himself and he heard the wail of cop cars coming from a distance but gaining quickly. "Shit!" He swore out loud, he needed to get out of here, his call to the cops probably wasn't the only one with all gunfire and this place would soon be flooded with people. Something brushed up against his foot and he looked down and saw a scrap of fabric held against his leg in the slight breeze. He bent down and snatched it up before it blew away, it looked familiar and he swore that the girl had been wearing it in her hair before he tackled her behind the dumpster. He stuck the hairband in his jacket pocket and loped off towards his truck, carefully avoiding being seen by anyone. "Quiet night my ass."

* * *

**There you have it! I hope it is off to a good start. I am not sure if there is anything out there like this already, I know there are lots of AU fics out there floating around so hopefully it is something new and different. Expect more soon!**


	2. Just Another Day In Paradise

**Howdy everyone. Thanks for your interest in the story so far! I read the comment about breaking up some of the larger paragraphs and I appologize, I usually write with a lot more dialogue (as you will see in this chapter) than what was in the first chapter and I naturally break up my dialogue. So I went back and broke it up a little bit more so hopefully that helps. I also apologize on how big the chapters are, I usually only like to write between 1800-2500 words but these are all a lot longer just because the segments have a lot more content than usual. Also, I feel I should warn you, while this is an AU fic based on Fairy Tail characters, they might be written a little OCC at times and I will try to be better with that in the future, I promise. Please enjoy!**

**As always, I don't own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him letting me use his characters for my own creative expressions *bows***

* * *

It seemed like hours went by before Levy trusted her legs enough to be able to pick herself up off the floor and make it to her couch. She should have been crying but the tears never came, it was like a bad dream or a cheesy action movie she had been watching from the outside and all she really felt was numb. She looked down at her hands and knees and noticed for the first time that they were dotted with dried blood from when she was pushed behind the dumpster. Pushed by a giant man with a gun that was probably not very happy about being hit in the face with a ladies purse. Levy shivered and rushed to the bathroom, she needed to take a shower and wash the dirt off her body and the bad memories from her mind. She shampooed her hair twice and scrubbed her skin until it was pink and blotchy but it didn't make her feel any better. She toweled off and then got into her fluffiest flannel pajamas hoping that it would help.

She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and noticed that it was just after midnight but it felt to her like it was three in the morning. Just then she heard a scraping noise from outside the front door and her heart stopped, somebody was trying to get into the apartment. She looked around her room for some kind of a weapon to use and all she could see was a blue umbrella leaning against the wall, better than nothing she thought to herself as she grabbed it and crept out into the hallway. The door was slowly opening so she hefted the umbrella over her shoulder like a baseball bat and took aim, a blonde walked through it completely unaware of the umbrella just inches away.

"Lucy!" Levy cried out in surprise and the blonde looked up at the smaller woman, when she saw the umbrella still in the hitting position she shrieked and jumped back towards the hall.

"What did I do!?" The blonde asked in surprise, "Did I leave the kitchen a mess again? What are you doing?" Levy looked up at the umbrella in her hands and then dropped it like it was on fire.

"No! I mean, yes but this is not what you think, I'm sorry!" They both stared at each other for a second and became aware of noises coming from Lucy's purse, a small white dog's head popped out of the top and growled at them angrily. Levy reached out and grabbed Lucy's arm, pulling her back into the apartment before shutting the door and locking it up again.

"What is going on?" Lucy asked again, putting her purse down on the floor so that the little dog could hop out.

Levy tried to clear her fuzzy head before answering, "Where were you? It's after midnight." She couldn't believe that she had forgotten about her roommate of five years and then nearly bludgeoned her for coming home. Lucy looked at her like she had lost her mind again.

"It's Friday, a bunch of us went out after work since its ladies night over at the club on 20th. It was crazy busy today because of the long weekend and so we gave up when we couldn't get in. I would have texted you but you haven't gotten a new cell phone yet." Lucy took off her coat and hung it up on one of the pegs by the door; she turned and peered at Levy again with concern.

"Tell me what is going on, you tried to attack me at the door and you look like you've seen a ghost." Levy just stared at her, still trying to calm her beating heart and taking comfort in her oldest and best friend's concern, finally she felt the tears bubble up and start to pour out her eyes.

"Oh Lucy!" she cried and tackled the bigger girl in a crushing hug. "It was so awful and I was so scared." Lucy returned the hug and patted her back awkwardly, "You are really starting to freak me out Levy, please tell me at least _something_."

Levy pulled away and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, "W-we should p-probably sit down." They went back to the couch, the little white dog jumping up between them and curling up into a tight ball before falling asleep. Levy took a deep breath and then started to tell Lucy about what had happened behind the bookstore. When she got to the part about the gun Lucy's eyes went wide with shock and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my God! What did you do?"

"I couldn't do anything, I was so scared, then this guy came out of nowhere and pulled me behind the dumpster, but then he had a gun too and started shooting at the other guy, it was crazy!" Levy knew she was babbling uncontrollably but she needed to get it all out. "And then it stopped and the guy tried talking to me but I hit him with my purse and ran away." They sat there and stared at each other for a long minute.

"So," Lucy started so quiet Levy almost couldn't hear her, "You didn't call the police?"

Realization hit Levy and she did an internal face palm. "No! I didn't even think of the cops! Ugh!" Of course she needed to call the cops and tell them what she saw, but then again, was that the safest thing for her to do?

"So, what are you going to do?" Lucy asked, echoing her own thoughts.

"I guess… tomorrow I should go to the police." Levy answered just as quietly. Even though she knew it was technically the right thing to do, her gut was giving off the warning bells of doubt. The Fiore Police Department, especially the Magnolia precinct didn't have the best reputation and Levy knew from personal experience that they weren't the most helpful or dedicated organization. Lucy took her right hand in both of hers and gave it an encouraging squeeze, "If you want I can go with you…"

Levy shook her head, "No, you should go to work." She would never forgive herself if she dragged Lucy into this mess any more than she already had. "It's going to be busy because of the weekend. Besides, one of us has to make the rent," she did her best attempted at a smile but knew that she hadn't pulled it off.

"Screw the rent, you need me more than the Salon does," Lucy growled.

"You just want to get out of work." Levy didn't have to try as hard to smile this time when she thought about Lucy's job as a shampoo girl at a large and classy Hair Salon downtown.

"Any excuse I can get, that man is tyrant… Who goes by the professional name Cancer? A crazy assed person, that's who," Lucy griped about her boss, trying to be normal. "Are you feeling better?" She asked the blue haired girl sincerely.

Levy nodded, "I am, but you don't have to come with me tomorrow. I can go down there by myself."

"We'll see," the blonde answered and Levy knew that the conversation wasn't over. She sighed and laid back on the couch, then felt Lucy cuddled up next to her carefully because of the dog between them. They sat there in silence until both of them fell into restless sleep.

* * *

An unmarked black car pulled up behind a circle of police cars with their lights flashing brightly; it hadn't even been a half hour since the shooting and the alley behind the book store was packed with police and onlookers. A tall redheaded woman got out of the driver's side gracefully, her sharp brown eyes taking in the scene before her without missing a detail. She still hadn't stepped away from her car when another pulled up beside her, this one was dark blue with a "World's Best Dad" rear licence plate and a child's car seat in the back. The corners of Erza Scarlett's mouth piqued up in amusement as she watched her partner climb out and notice her standing there waiting.

"No minivan?" She asked with feigned surprise. Gray Fullbuster gave her a slight grimace as they walked together towards the taped off area.

"Don't start, you're lucky that I made it here as fast as I did. I wasn't going all the way back to the station to switch out my car," he growled at her and then yawned.

"Don't tell me you were already in bed?" Erza continued with the teasing despite his frosty expression.

"Huh, I have a wife and four kids under six, plus I just got off a double shift. I think that I'm actually asleep right now and this is all a bad dream." They ducked under the florescent police tape after flashing their badges to the silent cop standing guard as another uniformed officer motioned them over and they joined him.

"Sorry to disappoint you Gray, but there is a very real dead gangster under that tarp. I think you guys might know him." The officer leaned down and pulled up the top corner of the tarp just enough to show the face.

Gray sucked in some air in surprise. "Zoldeo… What would he be doing in a place like this?" The officer shook his head and let the tarp fall back. "Beats me."

"Are there any witnesses? Did anyone see anything?" Erza asked, she was all business now; her voice cold and serious.

"We're still canvassing the area, but so far nothing much has come up. Even though it's a heavy populated area it was late, dark and quick. Officers were on scene not even ten minutes after the first call came in reporting gunfire but it was already clear except for this guy. Do you think it was a hit?"

Erza shook her head slightly. "That doesn't make any sense, too populated, too much of a risk, especially for a gang hit. We are missing something here, are you sure that there are no witnesses? I find that hard to believe." The officer shrugged and just then another uniformed cop joined them.

"I think I might have something," the cop was young, barely looking old enough to even be in uniform.

"What is it Romeo?" Gray asked, "Give us some good news." The young cop flashed him an impressive smile. "I've got an old guy who was walking his dog around the time of the shooting; I think he might have seen something."

"I'll go and question him," Erza spoke up and motioned Romeo to lead her to the potential witness.

"And I'll go talk to the ME and see if we are clear to move this body out of here yet," Gray called after them as they walked back out of the circle, Erza raised her hand in response but said nothing.

"She sounds like she is in a real good mood," the uniformed officer remarked dryly. Gray sighed and looked around for the coroner.

"She's coming up for promotion again, really feeling the pressure to take it this time. I think that makes her crabby."

The officer shook his head. "If she was smart she would have taken it years ago, no offence, but someone with Erza's potential is really wasted in the Magnolia precinct, I'm surprised that the Chief of Police hasn't forced her into Crocus before now."

"Don't think they haven't tried but Erza has some powerful friends in high places. Plus I don't think even the mayor could force her to do anything she didn't want to do." Gray and the officer looked at each and then away. No one talked about Erza and the mayor, ever, not unless they wanted the full wrath of the Queen of Fairy Street to fall down on them.

"And," Gray continued still watching for the medical examiner to come and claim the body. "How many times have you turned down Detective? Two? Three? Kind of the pot calling the kettle black my friend."

The officer smiled, flashing his teeth. "We weren't talking about me though and I enjoy being a training officer, somebody has to make sure that the younglings know what the hell they are doing. Why? Are you hunting for a new partner?"

Gray laughed. "Hopefully not anytime soon… Besides, out of all the potential candidates what makes you think I would pick you?" He answered, straighfaced and serious.

The officer slapped a hand over chest and pantomimed being shot in the heart. "Ouch, hit me right where it hurts why don't you? Anyway, everyone knows that you Fairies stick together so I'm probably not even on your short list."

The smile faded a bit on Gray's face. "Yeah, that's the way it was supposed to be." A girl dressed in blue Crime Scene overalls came over to inform them that they were finished and the coroner had arrived to take the body away.

"Finally," Gray breathed. "I'll go let Erza know they are ready to release the scene and let the body go. See you back at the station, Mest."

Mest Doranbolt sent Gray a quick army salute as he watched him walk away, "Good luck."

* * *

Erza followed Romeo back out to the circle of squad cars to where a white haired old man was waiting with another uniformed cop.

"We can take it from here," she told him as they approached, he nodded and walked away.

"This is Mr. Gilberts, he lives over on Peppercorn and was walking his dog at the time of the shooting." Romeo informed Erza.

Gilberts looked Erza over and whistled loudly, "Are you sure you're a cop young lady? You look way to pretty to be working in a job like that." Erza could barely contain an eye roll and grimace. Please not one of these, she begged the universe, not tonight.

"Mr. Gilberts," she replied smoothly without letting her voice show an ounce of annoyance. "I'm Detective Erza Scarlett of the Fiore Police Department, Officer Conbolt tells me that you may have seen what happened here tonight? Would you like to tell me about it?" The white haired man cracked her a big smile that revealed several missing teeth and really bad breath.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but I didn't see any of that shooting stuff. All I saw was a couple arguing over by the dumpster."

Erza choose to ignore the term of endearment and focus on the facts. "A couple? What were they doing?"

"Well, like I said, it seemed like they were talking or something and then she swung her purse and hit him right in the face before running off into the trees, he called after her and then took off in the opposite direction. I wouldn't even have even known somebody had been shot if it wasn't for the police car that showed up a few minutes later."

"So, you didn't see or hear any of the gunshots?"

"No ma'am, my ears and eyes ain't what they used to be, the only reason I noticed these two was because Spotty, that's my dog, likes to sniff around that dumpster to do his business so were heading over there."

"Can you describe what they looked like? Could you pick them out of a photo?"

"I don't know, it was dark and I wasn't really paying attention. The guy was big, at least a foot bigger than she was, with dark hair and he was wearing dark clothes. She had lighter hair but still a dark shade, maybe blue? And she was wearing a dress, I did notice that as she was running away," the old man said with a chuckle. Of course you did, Erza internally sighed, not much to go on but still more than they had ten minutes ago.

"Can you tell me again which way they went?" The old man pointed towards a building that was almost completely shielded by trees. "She ran into there, between the trees. And then he went that way," he pointed down the alley into the opposite direction of where they had found Zoldeo's body. "I don't know if he turned into a street or which way he went, like I said, I wasn't paying much attention to the details."

This time Erza sighed out loud after looking where he was pointing, both directions were probably dead ends. "Thank you for your time Mr. Gilberts, here, take my card and let me know if you can remember anything else and please leave your information with Officer Conbolt so that we can let you know if we need to speak to you again."

Gilberts took her card and stuffed it into his front pocket. "Well look at that, my age and I'm still getting all the pretty girls' phone numbers." He gave her another grin and Erza had to force herself not to gag a little. Thankfully Romeo seemed to get the hint and led the old man away to get his personal information. When Erza turned around to go back to the body she saw Gray was walking towards her instead.

"They just informed me that they will be moving the body and releasing the scene, any luck with the witness?"

Erza shook her head slightly, "No, but we might have two more potential witnesses." She told him about what the old man saw beside the dumpster.

"Well, if the timeline is correct they have to have seen the shooting, I mean that dumpster can't be more than 20 feet away and in direct view of the crime scene." Gray turned to look down the alley. "Want to go check it out?" Erza nodded and they walked down the alley towards the lone dumpster. When they got there, Gray took his flashlight out of his pocket and illuminated the area behind it. "It definitely looks like something went on here," he commented. "The dirt here is disturbed and is that a fresh bullet hole?" He pointed to a dint in the dumpster that was silvery in the moonlight from the missing paint.

"It does look fairly recent," Erza agreed, taking a closer look. "We should get Crime Scene down here and let them check it out, see if there are any other signs of a connection between this mystery couple and our shooting. If they were standing here they would have seen the whole thing, maybe even enough to ID the shooter." It seemed like too much to ask for but they could get lucky.

"That would be nice," Gray agreed. "If you go talk to them I will follow the body back to the office. I doubt we will have the autopsy by morning but at least I can get started on the evidence."

"You just want to get the paperwork started so that you can get back to your warm bed," the teasing tone was back and Gray had to smile. "You caught me, not all of us live in downtown high-rise apartments and can live on 4 hours of sleep a night."

"Go ahead then," Erza answered. "I don't think we are going to find out anything else here tonight."

"We might get lucky, you never know," Gray commented as he started walking back towards his car.

"You never know," Erza agreed, but she had the nagging feeling that it was too much to hope for in this case.

* * *

**So, I know the thing with Mest/Doranbolt is a little weird but we only have one of his real names and to me he will always be "Mest" so I decided to use both, although "Mest Gryder" will play a role later on. **


	3. Beautiful Stranger

**Hmmm... So I really wanted to do a big sweep and do an update of everything at once but I am so far unhappy with the other stories' chapters so it will have to happen next time lol. I hope you enjoy the story so far!**

**As always, I don't own Fairy Tail or these characters, they belong to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for their use in my own creative expressions *bows***

* * *

Seven AM the next day Gajeel was leaning against the back door of his small office building sipping a strong black coffee and waiting. The building was a single story, made of brick and wedged between a bar and a bakery in the heart of the Magnolia neighborhood of Fiore. It's only adornment was a large hanging sign of a Japanese style dragon twisted into the shape of the number seven over the front door facing the street. Finally a sleek black mustang pulled into the small back lot beside his truck and Gajeel watched as the driver got out and walked over. He was a big man, slightly bigger than Gajeel in the shoulders and not much taller but as fair as Gajeel was dark, with blonde hair and light skin. The only visible distinguishing mark was a faint scar in the shape of a lightning bolt across his left eye, but Gajeel knew that there were several flowing tattoos underneath the arms of the lightweight black sports jacket pulled tight by his biceps. Even when he was trying to be discreet, there was something ominous and dangerous about Laxus Dreynar, like he was always just one step away from thunderous anger and great violence.

"You're early," Laxus commented as he stuck a key from his key ring into the door. "Did you lose your keys again?"

Gajeel shook his head, "Naw, I just hate being the first one here." Laxus nodded and they both entered the building, hanging their coats on a small rack by the door and walking into the large main area which consisted of a small secretary desk and three large filing cabinets against one wall and several waiting room chairs, a stand up water cooler and coffeemaker on a card table on another. Gajeel waited as Laxus filled the coffee machine with water and flicked the on switch before following him through another door that led into his private office. Gajeel shut the door behind him, but leaned against it instead of taking one of the chairs in front of the large desk and didn't start speaking until Laxus was seated.

"So, you got my SOS text last night I take it?" He asked the blonde man.

"I did, Zoldeo is dead? That could be a problem…"

"Tell me about it," Gajeel growled, the slight bruise on his chin seemed to twitch. "You have to hear the whole goddamn shitfest." He told Laxus in great detail about his surveillance on Zoldeo and how it had turned into an assassination attempt instead of just a simple meeting like they had been led to believe.

"Where did that tip come from?" Gajeel asked him when he got to the part about Zoldeo bolting into the alley.

"Phone message left on Wendy's machine, all it said was the time and place and that some kind of a meeting was taking place. I will contact the boys about trying to get a trace on it but it sounds now like it was a set up so I doubt we will get much from it."

"Damn rights it was a set up! That asshole wasn't even trying to hide what he was doing and then there is the problem with the girl…" Gajeel growled again, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Girl?" Laxus asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, some girl was in the alley. Zoldeo nearly ran her over trying to get away and then the hitman tried to take us both out in the getaway."

"Where is this girl now? Who is she? Do you think she was involved?"

Gajeel shook his head. "I doubt she was anything other than in the wrong place at the wrong time, I think she was taking out the trash behind the building and just got caught up in it. And I don't know who she is or where she is now, she got away." The growling tone was back and his chin was definitely twitching in pain.

"Got away?" Laxus' eyebrows where still high and Gajeel sighed, explaining about taking cover behind the dumpster and then being hit in the face twice. By the time he had finished Laxus was trying and failing to keep a smile off his face.

"You got something to say?" Gajeel asked menacingly, his eyes now so narrowed they were practically closed.

"Nope, nothing," Laxus snorted in half laughter. "I just never thought that the great Black Steel Gajeel Redfox would get overpowered by a girl." And with that he couldn't control it anymore and started to laugh in full, leaning back in his chair and gasping for breath.

Gajeel could feel his face redden in embarrassment. "She did NOT overpower me! She surprised me, and how was I supposed to know that she would be so ungrateful for me saving her that she would attack me in the face with a heavy bag."

This caused Laxus to laugh even harder. "A purse…" he large man managed to get out, "You got beaten up by a purse…"

"SHUT UP!" Gajeel turned towards the wall and started banging his head against it.

"Hey," Laxus growled between his tears of laughter. "Don't put a hole in my wall man. Well, whoever she is, you need to find her."

Gajeel froze in mid-bang and turned to face Laxus again. "Say what? Why do we need to do that?"

"Because, she is the only other person that can ID the shooter so you can bet that they will be after her too. Plus, by the sounds of it I would really like to meet her." Laxus finally composed himself and it was like the laughter had never happened.

"But she can't ID the shooter any more than I can, they were wearing full biker gear and a tinted helmet, it could be anyone." Meeting her again was one of the last things that Gajeel wanted to do.

"It would be better to error on the side of caution with this one, if they think that she could be a problem then she is in a lot of danger. Also, if she goes to the police and tells them that you were there it could mess up this case." Laxus stood up and walked past Gajeel and opened the door to the main office. Gajeel could smell the fresh coffee and noticed that they were no longer alone; another man was sprawled out in one of the waiting room chairs studying his hand when they walked in.

"What am I supposed to do? I have no idea who she is or how to find her," Gajeel asked, undeterred that they were no longer in the privacy of the office.

"You're the private detective, detect her idiot," Laxus answered while pouring himself a cup of coffee. "There has to be somewhere you can start, something you remember about her."

"She was small, couldn't have weighted more than 100 pounds, I thought she was a kid at first. She had blue hair and a strong arm, that's about all I got," Gajeel admitted lamely.

"Well you said she was taking out the trash, which means she has to work or live somewhere in the area. Plus she ran towards the residential area and not the street, which means she was probably on foot and not driving so makes it even more likely that she lives somewhere nearby." Gajeel had to admit that Laxus was making it hard to him to find excuses not to find this girl and being the only person that knew what she looked like he couldn't even convince one of the other guys to find her instead.

"What are we talking about?" The seated man asked, his hand now under his chin and leaning against the chair arm, studying them curiously.

"Gajeel lost a witness last night, a girl," Laxus answered before taking a sip of coffee. Gajeel sputtered again and felt his cheeks re-heating.

"Interesting," the man mumbled. "Is it a funny story? Is that why there was so much laughing coming from your office a few minutes ago?" He asked innocently.

"Cobra," Laxus warned, "I've told you before not to listen in on my office."

"It's not my fault you were being loud," he answered sourly. "Someone should tell me what is going on…" Laxus explained to him about the shooting and the missing witness. Cobra nodded in agreement when he got to the part about Gajeel needing to track her down.

"She also might be good bait," he added when Laxus was finished. "If they think she is useful and they know we have her, it might draw them out and give us the break we need in this case." The other two men just stared at him in slight disbelief. "What?" He asked finally. "What did I say?"

"That's a little cold," Laxus replied slowly. "We can't really use an innocent person as gang bait."

Cobra just shrugged again, "It's just an option, but I think we all agree she needs to be found."

They all turned towards the front door at the sound of a key being inserted into the doorknob, it opened to reveal a young woman with long dark blue hair and wearing a flattering but work appropriate green dress. "Good morning everyone!" She announced cheerily before removing her light coat and throwing it over the chair behind the secretary desk.

"Good morning Wendy," Laxus greeted her first. "No donuts today?"

"The bakery doesn't open for another ten minutes," she said with a smile. "Then I will go get some donuts." Gajeel and Cobra greeted her also as she settled into her desk.

"Natsu isn't here yet? What about the twins?" She asked them while taking a seat in her chair.

"The twins are on still on special assignment, but that should be wrapping up today. Natsu is probably still sleeping, you might want to call his house," Laxus turned back to Gajeel. "Find her and then report back to me." He went back into his private office and shut the door. Wendy started checking the messages on her answering machine and Cobra turned to look at Gajeel again.

"You heard the boss," he said with a hint of malicious grin. "Find her before the killer does."

Gajeel glared at him, "You know, technically he isn't the boss."

Cobra grunted in response, "I would love to be there when you try and tell him that."

"How you would like to lose your other eye?" Gajeel growled. Cobra's grin deepened revealing his overlarge canines that narrowed into small points like fangs.

"You should get to work instead of handing out idle threats that we both know you can't deliver on anyway, especially since you say you have nothing to go on."

Gajeel was just about to tell him the difference between an idle threat and a promise when he remembered what was in his pocket. He pulled out the scarf from last night to get a better look at it in the daylight. It was mostly orange and made out of some kind of silky material, he didn't know though how common headbands like this would be.

"What is that," Cobra asked curiously, peering at the scarf from his chair.

"A headband," Gajeel answered as he continued to feel it with his fingers. "I picked it up in the alley last night and completely forgot about it. I think it belongs to that girl and it fell off when I pulled her behind the dumpster."

"Well," Wendy announced from her behind her desk. "Natsu is awake, but I think somebody is going to have to go and drag his butt in here, sounds to me like he had a rough night."

Cobra stood up and stretched. "I'll do it, dealing with a hungover Dragneel is always a good time and Gajeel is going to have his hands full. Watch out for those killer purses, Black Steel," he said with a wink.

"Damn your ears," Gajeel muttered at him murderously.

Wendy nodded to him as he left through the front door and then looked over at Gajeel. "What is that?" She asked.

"A scarf," he answered, holding it up so that she could see it. "I need to find the girl that was wearing it last night; she could be in a lot of trouble."

"I think I know that scarf, can I see it?" Gajeel gave it to her and she looked it over carefully. "I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like the one that this girl who works at the bookstore wears."

"Where is the bookstore?" Gajeel asked, hoping that he finally caught a lucky break.

"Over on 14th, Crux Antique Books. I've only been in there a couple of times but there is a really good cupcake place on that same block."

"Do you remember what she looks like? Or her name?"

"Umm, she has blue hair, I think it was cut about here," Wendy motioned to her shoulders. "But she was a little shorter than me, really nice though and she knew the answers to all my questions. I don't remember if I got her name and I don't think she had a nametag either… I hope that helps." Wendy gave the scarf back to Gajeel carefully and he slipped it back into his pocket. "Thanks, I think I have a place to start now at least. You should go get those donuts; Natsu is going to need them when he finally gets in here." He said goodbye to Wendy and slipped out the backdoor to his truck, heading back to 14th Street and Crux's Antique Books.

* * *

**We will start getting more into the other characters soon! Thanks for reading and I hope you will stay tuned for more. **


End file.
